About Me

I am a Professor of Law and the Director of the Program on Information
Justice and Intellectual Property at the American University, Washington
College of Law and am a founding member of the Creative Commons board.

2 Comments:

This petition has the merit of being clear and straightforward.What might be the most positive impact of those petitions is that OA really seems to be getting people's attention. Maybe not the general public, yet. But there really seems to be a growing momentum for OA. Isn't it possible that awareness of issues related to OA may have more effects than policy changes?

Thanks for your comment. Awareness and policy change are interlinked. You are absolutely right that greater awareness can immediately lead to important effects. In particular, we need more scholarly authors to be aware that they should read the agreements they've already signed to see if they have the right to self archive their scholarship. The many of them who have such rights should then exercise them to support OA.

But institutions that fund or indirectly subsidize research also have an interest in OA, and they should express that interest in their policies. As researchers and readers of the research literature become more aware of the importance of OA, they will look to relevant institutions to help find the most efficient ways to implement OA.

I share your sense that awareness is growing, and this is all to the good.